Al-Qaeda Terrorist Awarded $88k in ‘moral damages’ from Belgium Government

Jihadists family already given €11,000 payment

The Belgian government awarded a convicted Al-Qaeda terrorist €78,000 (roughly $88,000) after the jihadist claimed his extradition to the United States violated his human rights.

According to Belgian media, terrorist and former professional football player Nizar Trabelsi received payment after approval from the European Court of Human Rights in 2014.

Trabelsi, who reportedly met multiple times with Osama bin Laden back in 2001, was convicted of plotting to attack multiple US targets in Europe.

After having his charges dropped in a case surrounding a 2001 terror plot against the US embassy in Paris, in which he planned to carry out a suicide bomb attack, Trabelsi was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in jail by a Belgian court in 2003.

Connected to a terror plot against the Kleine Brogel Air Base in Belgium, Trabelsi was accused of “acts of criminal conspiracy, destruction by explosion, possession of combat weapons and belonging to a private militia,” reports RT.

After being extradited to the US in 2013, Trabelsi complained he was exposed to “a risk of treatment contrary to Article 3 of the Convention” and that “the enforcement of the decision to extradite him had infringed his right of individual petition.”

“The ECHR ordered to pay the jihadist no less than €90,000 (about US$100,000),” RT states. “His family, which lives in Belgium, had already received €11,000.”